12
W
e started off Leg-con 2015 back
in March with bringing housing
home. Andrew Chaban and
Gary Campbell met with Niki Tsongas to
discuss housing issues and later that week
Gary Campbell and Larry Kady met with
rookie Seth Moulton to offer our support in
his new role.
The NAHB Spring Board meeting which
took place June 3-6 was an opportunity
to hear about the great work done by our
Association’s Government Affairs Staff, led
by Executive Vice President Jim Tobin. The
EPA recently unilaterally declared a quite
unprecedented expansion of their authority
regarding the Clean Waters Act, making
vernal pools, drainage ditches, and almost all
sources of water subject to regulation by the
Army Corps of Engineers. This edict would
add huge costs to housing developments
across the country, and is not justified by law
or normal regulatory procedure. NAHB has
already led a large and diverse coalition that
pushed bipartisan legislation fighting this
regulatory overreach through the House of
Representatives, and is looking to do the same
through the Senate. The Government Affairs
team is also working tirelessly to promote
legislation that would preserve affordable
flood insurance for homeowners, keep the
mortgage interest deduction, push back
against impractical and costly Department
of Energy green mandates, fight rules that
would make general contractors responsible
for the immigration status of their subs,
and put forward ideas that would maintain
appropriate support for the mortgage industry
which is so critical to home ownership. They
do incredibly important work, and we need
to support them through our membership
and our contributions to Build-PAC. Your
State Association has already scheduled a
Build-PAC fundraising event on Tuesday,
September 22
nd
in Shrewsbury, and we hope
you can support it in any way you can.
As part of the state reps meeting at Spring
Board, there was a lengthy discussion on non-
dues revenue and in that discussion was talk
of NAHB looking to rent our email addresses.
Email lists are going to be rented but to
affinity sponsors only. These are companies
that we work with normally, and give special
discounts to members. Similar to previous
years when mail lists were rented, revenue
will be shared 50/50 with locals as long as
we are a member of the affinity program. If
we are not members of the affinity program
at the local and state levels, let’s figure out
how to make that happen as it too will be a
bonus for all.
Speaking of dues, 2017 dues increase, the
third installment is going to happen as we
missed our membership targets as well as
our IBS rented floor space target. Some of
this discussion centered on dues increases
going forward and changing to a cost of living
increase annually. There is still more work
that needs to be done, but you can be certain,
automated dues adjustments are coming.
The new NAHB.org site is up and running.
Please go check it out and offer your
feedback; it will be greatly appreciated.
While you are up on the site, sign up for the
NAHBnow email list. Great housing news
releases delivered to your inbox.
New closing rules go into effect 8/1/15 where
the changes are significant.
Closings will shift and may be impacted
severely. Also of note is there does not appear
to be a provision for 203k rehab loans in the
new closing documentation. There no longer
will be a HUD statement and notifications are
going to be strictly enforced. See NAHB web
site for hot news on this topic.
By Larry Kady & Gary Campbell
State Rep Meeting - Spring Board in DC
A F FA I R S
Government
By Larry Kady
By Gary Campbell
